February 2008

February 29, 2008

A better world

A Better World has been created to provide you with a place to begin gathering resources and ideas for your school's character education /safe schools/ positive school climate and positive citizenship priorities.

A Better World

Pieces of the Puzzle

Portfolios, Rubrics, Performance Assessments, and Assessment and Evaluation. We've begun gathering informative resources on all of it so you have it at your finger tips.

Assessment and Evaluation

March Resources

Language Teaching Clipart Library

This library consists of about 3000 images which we hope will be useful in the teaching of basic vocabulary in a variety of languages. The characters and objects depicted are as culturally neutral as we could make them.

This is not a huge resource of graphics; its purpose is to provide a set of those graphics most basic and useful for low-level language-teaching, and at the same time, to make them as easily searchable as possible.

The 3000 images consist of 1500 pairs. One member of each pair has a transparent background just big enough to fit the image, the other has a white background 110 by 110 pixels. For example, compare these two images:

UVic's Language Teaching Clipart Library

Mysteries in Canadian History

Check out this very cool site...students would love it.

Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History

Aunt Lee Dot Com

Safety on Social Networking Sites

Aunt Lee Dot Com

Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators: A guide to RSS and More

Should You Read This?
•
With all the information on the web how can we make sense of it all?
•
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to filter out what we want from what we don't want?
•
Do you visit the same web sites again and again looking for new content; wouldn't it be nice to automate this task?
•
Would you like to share great resources that you find with other teachers or your students?
•
Would you like to have access to new tools and resources without having to spend hours searching for them?
•
Would you like to make connections with other teachers?
If you have asked yourself any one of these questions then the answer that you are looking for is RSS and Atom feeds. They are here to stay and feed offers a new face to the World Wide Web that we are already familiar with.

100ideasWeb2educators

February 28, 2008

Launch the new SCCS website

Today we launched our new cyber school website, this blog driven website is a technology wonder. Congrats to Kelli Boklaschuk for her work on the site.

Welcome to the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School

February 26, 2008

Administrator ID card

I have found my ID card.

February 25, 2008

The challenges of online enducation

The challenges that face the educator in the online environment are greater than the challenges facing the learner. Dudfield (1999) states "These children have new needs, new capabilities, new capacities; they are significantly different in nature from children born before the existence of the 'wired' world" (¶ 2). The group of "wired" students are accustomed to having personal interest information at their finger tips and like the challenge of lifelong learning. An educator who does not recognize this different breed of students and study them will not meet their 'consumer of education' needs. Furdyk (2007) states "teachers need to exist in the spaces the students exist, understand their culture. You have no credibility if you are not where they are" (taken from a keynote). Creating a lifelong learner is the new goal of twenty first century education and can only be achieved by an educator who shares the lifelong learner characteristic. Bearisto (2000) states "we must all develop the aptitudes and dispositions of lifelong learning if we are to thrive in our dynamic and pluralistic age" (p. 1). He further explains that being a lifelong learner will allow one "to thrive as a knowledge worker who surfs the wave of change in our information age" (p. 6). This environment will allow the students to move from students to learners. Anderson (2007) clarifies by stating "students are individuals who get taught. But learners are more actively involved in the learning process. Learners have active curiosities and take initiative" (¶ 5). The online teacher is a guide on the side. Teaching online is akin to teaching in the largest library in the world. The internet is just a click of the mouse away. The sage on the stage pales next to this resource. It allows teachers to remove themselves from being the focus of the education and allows the students (learners) to be the center of the process. According to King (1993) it allows learners to actively participate in thinking and discussing ideas while making mean¬ing for themselves. (¶ 4) McKenzie (1998) states "student-centered learning can be time-consuming and messy, efficiency will sometimes argue for the Sage"(¶ 13). 1) The online method of course content delivery is perfectly suited to allow the instructor to be more of a guide. The content, instruction and assignments are delivered via the computer so the teacher's role is naturally more of a guide. "The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself." (Bulwer-Lytton, 2007 ¶ 4) and Carruthers (2007) further defines a teacher as "one who makes himself progressively unnecessary" (¶ 5)
Anderson, E. (2007). Becoming Your Own Best Teacher and Learner. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from Baylor University: http://www.baylor.edu/strengths/index.php?id=27352
Beairsto, B. (2000). What Does it Take to Be a Lifelong Learner? Retrieved December 8, 2007, from School District No. 38 (Richmond): http://public.sd38.bc.ca/~bbeairsto/Documents/LifelongLearning.pdf
Bulwer- Lytton, E., & Carruthers, T. (2007, October 17). Great Teachers Become Unnecessary? Retrieved December 9, 2007, from Thought for the Day: http://kirkweisler.com/t4d/2007/10/16/great-teachers-become-unnecessary/
Dudfield, A. (2003, December 1). Literacy and Cyber Culture. Retrieved February 3, 2008, from Reading Online: http://www.readingonline.org/articles/dudfield/main.html#author
Furdyk, K. (2007). Living, Learning and Contributing as a Life Long Journey. Distributed Learning in the 21st Century Conference. Edmonton Alberta: Alberta Learning.
King, A. (1993). From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from Questia: College Teaching Journal: http://www.questia.com/
McKenzie, J. (1998, March). How are The Students Engaged? Retrieved December 9, 2007, from From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal: http://fno.org/mar98/flotilla2.html

Keybr.com

Very cool typing test,

keybr.com - Typing at the speed of thought!

Blackboard Wins Patent-Infringement Case Against Rival Courseware Provider

A federal jury in Texas ruled this afternoon in favor of Blackboard Inc., the nation’s leading online provider of course-management software, in its patent-infringement lawsuit against Desire2Learn Inc.

Blackboard sued the smaller Canadian-based company in 2006, asserting that it had infringed a patent that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted Blackboard that year. As a result, the larger company said, Desire2Learn had taken away customers that should have been Blackboard’s.

Wired Campus: Blackboard Wins Patent-Infringement Case Against Rival Courseware�Provider - Chronicle.com

February 24, 2008

Learning Styles online explained

"When mismatches exist between learning styles of most students in a class and the teaching style of the professor, the students may become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on tests, get discouraged about the courses" (Felder 2005, ¶2). Learning styles has been used as an excuse by many professors, teachers and institutions for not getting involved in online education because it is believed that online can only provide education to a limited number of learning styles. As online education matures, bandwidths increase and compression techniques improve teacher/developers are starting to use media which meet a variety of learning styles. Dede (2006) states "each of these media, when designed for education, fosters particular types of interactions that enable—and undercut—various learning styles... continuing evolution of computers and telecommunications and speculates on new learning styles emerging media may enable" (¶ 1). It is also stated by Terrell (2005) "no consideration was given to the possibility that a given student's learning preferences may change over time in order to compensate and adapt to an online learning environment (¶ 6). The youth of today have embraced the online method of making friends and collaborating and if teachers of online courses recognize and use some of the "web 2.0 tools" in their teaching arsenal, team and collaborative activities would be an end result.
What currently constitutes community or team activities in online learning are designed contrived questions which are answered by a controlled classroom group of learners within learning management system. By using web 2.0 tools (wikis and blogs) community is expanded to beyond the classroom virtual or physical walls and becomes worldwide. According to Downes “What happens when online learning software ceases to be a type of content-consumption tool, where learning is "delivered," and becomes more like a content-authoring tool, where learning is created" (¶ 4)?

The following flash files I have created to help educators see how lesson styles and learning styles can be used in conjunction with the WebCT learning platform to create community and valid learning environments.
Webct tools and learning style each can create.
http://www.scs.sk.ca/cyber/present/total.html
Learning Styles flash
http://www.scs.sk.ca/Cyber/Present/lessonstyle.htm
Teacher learning style
http://www.scs.sk.ca/Cyber/Present/styles.html

February 22, 2008

HotChalk

HotChalk is a community for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes an easy-to-use learning management system, a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment – available through any Internet browser.

HotChalk’s mission is to improve the lives of school teachers by helping them find Teacher Approved lesson plans, automating repetitive classroom tasks like managing homework, improving communication with students and parents, and delivering convenient access to valuable digital content to supplement curriculum.

HotChalk - Connecting Teachers, Student and Parents - Featuring NBC News Black History Month

How to make great teachers

We never forget our best teachers—those who imbued us with a deeper understanding or an enduring passion, the ones we come back to visit years after graduating, the educators who opened doors and altered the course of our lives.

How to Make Great Teachers - TIME

February 21, 2008

Why thank you very much.

I am honoured to make the list but even more honoured by your words....Thank you

Teaching and Developing Online by Darren Cannell. Darren is part of the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School. Darren is also apparently secretly the world's first nuclear-powered blogging machine. That's gotta be the case because there's no other way he could post as frequently and interestingly as he does.

Blackboard Educate Innovate: The Blog Habit

February 20, 2008

Made myself an avatar.

Ever had one of these days

The Greatest Challenge for the Virtual High School

Over the past week, I have had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). While there are literally thousands of sessions on almost as many different topics, the number of presentations dealing with K-12 online learning research projects can almost be counted on a single hand. One of these half dozen sessions was given by Sarah Haavind, based on his dissertation research at Harvard University, which examined collaboration in courses offered by the Virtual High School (VHS) consortium. Her presentation was interesting and she found many things that I believe could be valuable to othr virtual schools, however, there was one comment that she made that really caught my attention and that I just couldn’t get past. In the rationale for her study, she cited the five year evaluation of the VHS - Zucker and Kozma (2003) - and made the claim that according to this document the greatest challenge remaining with the VHS was increasing the level of collaboration in courses offered by the VHS.

Virtual High School Meandering:The Greatest Challenge for the Virtual High School

How to Behave on an Internet Forum

Internet forums are either a brilliant community where you can meet and chat with new, interesting people, or full of scornful idiots who deserve to be banned from The Net in its entirety. This film explains some of the common mistakes people make in forums, which makes then the sort of loathsome fool no one wants to know.

How To Behave On An Internet Forum (Technology: MySpace, Facebook & More)

Flight deck of the Airbus 380

This is one very cool use of 360 degree image.

Airbus A380 - cockpit | p a n o r e p o r t a g e | g i l l e s v i d a l

Canadians going online for education

Almost 80 per cent of full-time or part-time students went online as part of their studies, said the report, released Tuesday.

The statistics confirm a growing trend in Alberta towards online learning for post-secondary education and skills upgrading.

Canadians going online for education

Parent Information

Parent Information is targeted to families who are interested in understanding how online learning plays a part in their student's education and career; and how to find courses and support successful online studies in Minnesota.

Parent Information

February 19, 2008

Quackwatch

Quackwatch has grown considerably. To help visitors with special areas of interest, we maintain 21 additional sites for autism, chiropractic, dentistry, multilevel marketing, and many other hot topics. We are also closely affiliated with the National Council Against Health Fraud, which cosponsors our free weekly newsletter, and with Bioethics Watch, which highlights issues of questionable research on humans. Our Internet Health Pilot site provides links to hundreds of reliable health sites. Our Casewatch site contains a large library of legal cases, licensing board actions, government sanctions, and regulatory actions against questionable medical products.

Quackwatch

Involve Students in Community

Believe it or not, a story about toilets is helping me to think about how technology can make a qualitative difference in schools.

On a bathroom wall, in a home in Japan, is something that looks like a security keypad. It has a button for flushing the toilet and turning on the bidet. But it does more than just automate some basic bathroom activities.

In order to provide "full" service, a personal code must be entered. This bathroom fixture wants to know who you are before you "go." The toilet collects information from your body and sends it along a telecommunications link to the family doctor. The doctor's office has a computer program that tracks your daily "data." When the data shows a potential medical problem, you get a call from the M.D. to come in for a thorough exam. (I believe the toilet is a hot-selling item in Japan today!)

What does a high-tech toilet have to do with educational technology? It's an example of technology making a radical improvement in the mission of an age-old function. Technology isn't used simply to make the toilet flush faster. There was a qualitative leap.

November Learning - Involve Students in Community

February 18, 2008

Academic Integrity Survey

Survey of SFU First-year Students on Perceptions of Academic Integrity in High School

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY SURVEY

February 15, 2008

Texting 101: Craik students using cellphones in classroom

A Saskatchewan high school has stopped fighting technology and has embraced cellphone use in the classroom.

Texting 101:

Online Instructor Competencies

This pointer lays out a long list of competencies that have been found to improve practice and student learning and satisfaction in online education. The competencies are arranged by the functional roles of the instructor. At times, there may appear to be some duplication, but if you look deeper, you will see that I have tried to avoid true duplication. For instance, disability considerations are throughout, but one area might refer to the moral obligation, another area to the legal obligations, another to Web design aspects, and another to pedagogical application. Also, for many activities, there are three aspects that may be considered separately. There is the knowledge of an activity, the application of that activity, and the ability to state a rationale for that action. Finally, the alignment of these competencies with MVCR courses is also included. A paper coinciding with the construction of these competencies including more information on their organization has been submitted for publication. A link to the paper will be included here once it is in print. Highlights of this study were presented at the 2007 Illinois/International Online Conference and at the 2007 eLearning Conference in Albequerque, New Mexico. The PowerPoint used in the second talk is linked below.

Illinois Online Network: Instructional Resources : Pointers and Clickers : Online Instructor Competencies

Beating Cheating Online

Illinois Online Network: Instructional Resources : Pointers and Clickers : Beating Cheating Online

Honesty in Online Education

As online education has grown, so too, unfortunately, has the concern over academic honesty in this new environment. Academic honesty is a topic that keeps coming up over and over again in online education circles. These concerns are not new, nor are they limited to the online realm. However, when there is relative anonymity and a separation between instructor and student, these concerns seem to increase. This article attempts to critically analyze the arguments on both sides of the online cheating debate while presenting techniques for circumventing and alleviating issues related with online education.

Illinois Online Network: Instructional Resources : Pointers and Clickers : Honesty in Online Education

Icebreakers

Ice breakers are activities or modes of discussion used to help individuals ease into a group setting. Some ice breakers are done in groups and some can be individually completed. Others involve physical activities while others can be purely mental. Any activity that suits the intended purpose can be used.

Illinois Online Network: Instructional Resources : Pointers and Clickers : Ice-Breakers

ICEBREAKERS & ENERGIZERS

The following activities can be used in a variety of ways. They can be used for beginning of the year activities, energizers for breaks during standardized tests, team building activities, etc. They work for almost any age group--try some at the next faculty meeting. Some of them will guarantee a good laugh!

Icebreakers

Using Online Icebreakers to Promote Student/Teacher Interaction

In an online environment, human interaction does not just happen naturally. Your online students need a way to get to know you, the instructor, and others. There are several ways to encourage your students to interact with each other. The idea is to be creative and set several guidelines for students to follow in order to stimulate asynchronous discussions.

Online icebreakers

February 14, 2008

Tafiti Beta search engine.

What a pretty search engine...

tafiti

Check out the comments

Ruminate � Blog Archive � Attractive Students?

I doubt that it's any less prevalent. I suspect the whole mess is driven by the very real need to filter for viability of results, said filtering being a deep and unconscious need. So, lacking our normal "thin slice" clues and cues we substitute all manner of news ones, increasing, say, the value placed on grammar and stylish violations thereof, jargon, whether we get our weather from theweatherchannel.com or wunderground. And of course the hot chicks all use Mac.

By: Darren Cannell
April-23-05, 12:08:27 AM | Darren Cannell
It is neat to see the comments that are directed towards my posting. Even if the author of this blog got my first name wrong.

Keep up the comments people it is why we blog.

Feel free to visit my blog and add your two cents.

DARREN Cannell

Yes, if you broaden attraction out to its most basic level then it is all the same. But what is being discussed here is physical attraction. I've known teachers that very clearly prefer their "hot" students and could care less about the smart one.

The point is, in an environment where you never SEE your students, what does "attraction" entail? And is it really less prevalent in the distance education environment (I think not, assuming that your attractions aren't all physical, while recognizing that for some people that's all there is).

I commented as seque into a reference. I don't have references for the "attractive folks get treated better" research, although it's something I've heard as long as I can remember, and which certainly seems to fit my personal expriences.

From a thin-slicing standpoint, what else would we expect? By definition "attractive" means "evoking positive responses."

I just thought the other guys blog was funny. If you are ugly, it's okay...we treat you the same as the attractive students here at our Catholic school.

Now for my opinion on that, I believe for the less smart instructors they subconsiously are more inclined to help students with certain physical characteristics.

I just asked my supervisor what he thought, he is an instuctor at a local highschool, he tells me that it is true in his opinion, attractive students do get more attention. Then he proceeded to make the jocular comment that they are all ugly...

Not old news to me, though not particularly surprising.

I'm also making a different point than you are, specifically about attractiveness and thus attraction, which--if you want to cast it as such--is a very specific kind of hierarchy and has a very different meaning when you are dealing with students who are as old or older than yourself.

If you know it all already, why do you bother commenting on it?

Sure, great equalizer; that's why I get bitched at by my school-marmish friends for failing to capitalize and puntuate in chat. While visual criteria may be less at issue, the social animal still looks for ways to hierarchicalize its interactions. Where the communication becomes strictly textual we replace those visual guides with syntatic, lexical, etc.

Old news. Look for a documentary called, "The Eye of the Storm," which, while not making the exact same point, points to the age of this kind of thinking and gives some chilling examples of it in action.

February 13, 2008

The Straight Dope

Hello and welcome to the official Internet home of Cecil Adams, World's Smartest Human Being, and his famous syndicated column The Straight Dope. Here you will find all manner of things relating to the column and the vast Straight Dope media empire.

The Straight Dope Front Page

Welcome to Cyberwar Country, USA

My dad was in the Canadian Air Force so this article caught my interest.

Inside the Multimillion-Dollar Battle to Host the Air Force's New 'Cyber Command'

Five Things to Know About U.S. Border Laptop Searches

PC World - Five Things to Know About U.S. Border Laptop Searches

What if... you could have your doodle on the Google homepage for a day?

Doodle 4 Google gives U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme "What if...?" We ask ourselves this question every day when we build our products, so we thought we would ask the same of the future doodlers.

Official Google Blog: What if... you could have your doodle on the Google homepage for a day?

Here is a site with all the past google holiday logos.

Google Holiday Logos

Recover Your Life .com

Welcome to RecoverYourLife.com, one of the biggest and best Self Harm Support Communities on the Internet. We strongly believe in a free and open atmosphere here and our non-judgemental approach to all things Self Harm has been a help to thousands of people already. Come in and join us! You're not alone anymore....

Explore the site, communicate with other members via the moderated Forums, Live Chat, E-mail Support - or via the one-to-one Live Assistance and realise you are far from alone. Whether you want help in reducing or stopping your Self Harm, or you just aren't ready yet, everyone is welcome here. There are few rules and few taboos, but we will not condone the encouragement of Self Harm or Suicide in any way at any time. Our members have proved many thousands of times that there is hope - RYL really can be the stepping stone to getting through your Self Harm.

RecoverYourLife.com - Self Harm Support and Information - Home

February 12, 2008

Perhaps The Paperless World Isn't Such A Myth

Our office has almost gone papeless...no photocopier, no fax machine and no filing cabinets.

Techdirt: Perhaps The Paperless World Isn't Such A Myth

Let's take the digit out of digital

Is new technology damaging our ability to communicate? Fingers flying, we can blog, email, enter chat rooms and even vote together. But, as we type our trillions of words, something is being lost. Facebook is not the same as face to face and, as our virtual skills increase, I wonder if our ability to communicate using speech is on the decline.

Greg Philo on communicating effectively | comment | EducationGuardian.co.uk

Student say.... Part two

Survey results from the preparation course at Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School...

Should every student have to take a course from the cyber school to graduate from our school division?

answer	421 responds	percent
Yes	60	14.2%
No	361	85.5%

Is the cyber school's method of course delivery better preparing students than face to face schools methods?

answer	420 responds	percent
Yes	215	50.9%
No	205	48.6%

Will the fact that you took a cyber school course better prepare you for university?

answer	421 responds	percent
Yes	323	76.5%
No	98	23.2%

Do you think a text book is necessary for a cyber school course?

answer	418 responds	percent
Yes	89	21.6%
No	329	78.0%

Shoould the students have to take a their final exam face to face for a cyber school course?

answer	419 responds	percent
Yes	68	16.1%
No	351	83.2%

Should students be charged an administration fee for cyber school?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	14	3.3%
No	407	96.4%

Is the cyber school better for_______students?

answer	421 responds	percent
Advanced	150	35.5%
average	214	50.7%
below average	57	13.5%

Should the cyber school have a dress code?

answer	421 responds	percent
Yes	26	6.2%
No	395	93.6%

Did the cyber school website answer your questions?

answer	420 responds	percent
Yes	374	88.6%
No	47	11.1%

Have you ever been a victim of a cyber bully?

answer	420 responds	percent
Yes	51	12.1%
No	369	87.4%

Are you more computer literate than your parents?

answer	421 responds	percent
Yes	354	83.9%
No	67	15.9%

Should cyber instructors post their office hours?

Should there be teacher-parent interviews for cyber courses?

answer	421 responds	percent
Yes	335	79.4%
No	86	20.4%

Should the cyber school have a year book?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	84	19.9%
No	337	79.9%

Do you have your own cel phone?

answer	420 responds	percent
Yes	117	27.7%
No	303	71.8%

Do you text message?

answer	420 responds	percent
Yes	270	64.0%
No	150	35.5%

answer	417 responds	percent
Yes	263	62.3%
No	154	36.5%

February 11, 2008

Students say... Part one

Survey results from the preparation course at Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School...

Are you enrolled in a face to face school?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	341	82.8%
No	69	16.7%

Have you already completed 4 years of high school?

answer	411 responds	percent
Yes	51	12.4%
No	360	87.4%

Do you have internet at home?

answer	411 responds	percent
Yes	395	95.9%
No	15	3.6%

Do you spend 5+ hours a day on the internet?

answer	411 responds	percent
Yes	89	21.6%
No	322	78.2%

Have you been in a cyber school course before?

answer	411 responds	percent
Yes	104	25.2%
No	307	74.5%

Would you take a second cyber school course?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	330	80.1%
No	80	19.4%

Do you think your marks in cyber school will be higher than in face to face?

answer	411 responds	percent
Yes	289	70.1%
No	122	29.6%

Would you have take cyber school if there was any other way to do it?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	290	70.4%
No	120	29.1%

Do you think it is easier to cheat in cyber than in face to face school?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	144	35.0%
No	267	64.8%

Have you ever cheated in a face to face course?

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	52	12.6%
No	320	77.7%

Have you ever cheated in a cyber school course?

answer	411 responds	percent
Yes	10	2.4%
No	384	93.2%

Do you think the cyber school 150 days system is better than a semester system

answer	410 responds	percent
Yes	356	86.4%
No	55	13.3%

February 7, 2008

Web Aware

The Internet is fantastic, but there are risks. This site provides the tools you need to help keep your kids safe online.

Be Web Aware - Home

Virtual High School Meandering has moved

This is one great blog and I do not normally promote others but this one is worth checking out.

VHSM is Moving!!!

Well, it is official... I am moving my blog Virtual High School Meanderings from Blogger to Word Press. I have secured the domain:

http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/

I made the decision to change hosting sites for a couple of reasons.

The domain http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/ is better than http://mkbnl.blogspot.com
Word Press is a better blogging system than Blogger in my opinion, as it has:
Internal statistics
Ability to add pages in addition to entry
The calendar feature on the site
Both labels (which Blogger has) and internal tags to Technorati (which I had to do manually in Blogger)
So after almost three years, I'm moving.

It is one month shy of three years ago I began this blog with the entry Welcome to my Blog on Virtual High Schools. I selected Blogger at the time because I was new to blogging and with the help of Nathan Lowell I got started. I added Haloscan so that I could keep trackbacks (and used the Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger to send them). To increase traffic I registered with BlogShares, BlogInSpace, BlogExplosion, BlogsCanada, FeedBurner, and Technorati.

But now I'm moving and I hope that my readers will follow. So, if you are physically coming to this blog, please re-direct your browser to http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/. If you're reading this in an RSS reader, please update your feed to http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/.

Hope to see you at my new location:

http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/

Visualizing the Networked Teacher

This popular flickr image by courosa, called “The Networked Teacher”, is a strong visual representation of the modern teacher, showing how educators today are more “interconnected” with resources than a teacher not even ten years ago could imagine.

Random Ramblings � Blog Archive � Networked Teacher

February 6, 2008

“BIRDS AND BEES” DISCUSSION IN NEW GENERATION LINGO

A little boy goes to his father and asks "Daddy, how was I born?"

The father answers, "Well, son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:

"You got Male!"

Student Writing Opportunity & Building Profile for IVHS

The Illinois Computing Educators (ICE) have a call for articles written by students on what technology means to their education. The selected articles will be published ICE’s next Newsletter. This could be an opportunity for some of our students to write for a real audience and to raise the public awareness of IVHS at the same time.

Student Writing Opportunity & Building Profile for IVHS � Virtual High School Meanderings

Some very very good points (part two)

A successful union of information technology and systemic reform of K-12 education requires a renewed commitment to teachers in the nation's schools. If teachers are to become the students' empowered managers and resource guides for the broader world of information available through networks, they must have opportunities for professional development to take on this new role.

Investment in teachers today for all forms of professional development is woefully inadequate. While their access to technology in the classroom and at home is growing, it is at far too slow a pace and at a level of financial commitment too low to address the needs. Nor can this shortfall be met by relying on a new generation of younger teachers that are more computer literate than their predecessors. That strategy is not consistent with systemic reform.

Teachers must be offered opportunities for coursework in information technology and the opportunity to engage in building links in their communities where experience with technology is already in place. Students must be brought into the reform strategy as they are experienced mentors in the emergent world of cyberspace. School systems that want to change must promote professional development of teachers with the same commitment they make to hardware and software availability and network access.

Through recent history there have been two views of technology. The first sees technology as available predominantly to the economically advantaged. The second sees technology as a means of lowering barriers between the financially well off and those less economically fortunate.

History suggests that the latter is most often the relationship of technology and society. Major technologies deployed today, such as the airplane, saw early acceptance by those with financial resources, but increasingly and especially in recent decades have become much more available, as evidenced by the wide use of air travel. Electronic technologies more than any in the past have spread rapidly at much lower costs. Today games played by children are purchased and played across all socioeconomic groups.

Though poor neighborhoods and families face daunting challenges, technology deployed in education can help remove inequities between the schools of the inner city and the suburbs, between cities and rural districts, and inequities faced by people with physical disabilities and by Native Americans. Technology can become the force that equalizes the educational opportunities of all children regardless of location and social and economic circumstance. This should be the national goal.

With more than 23 million computers in American homes, the consumer demand for educational and entertainment products and services has created a substantial economic market that is surpassing the professional and business markets for new information technologies. This new and quickly growing market is supporting new ventures and services and is transforming the companies that helped create the information revolution.

Expansion and turbulence within the entertainment industry, the textbook publishing industry, and the computer hardware and software industry are translating K-12 educational possibilities into K-12 educational realities. Educators, parents, and students are quickly learning with their home computers what new products and services offer. And as the cost of buying and using these new products drops, these consumers are building a base of experience that will contribute to lifelong learning.

Businesses and venture capital are attracted to good ideas, and the new markets for educational technologies are already drawing considerable attention. But for these investments to pay off they must lead to products and services that are both interesting and based on national standards and systemic reform.

The potential for crossover between the educational and business systems is great. Educators can use new technologies to invest in learning activities, while venture capitalists can invest in educational products and services as a way of developing new markets. Children can gain access to interesting educational technologies, educators can benefit from children who are more interested in learning, and investments made today will produce both short-term and long-term economic returns for the companies and individuals who make them.

Cognitive research of recent decades has shown that earlier theories of learning did not take into account the intuitive capability that young children have to process complex thoughts, even in the absence of basic skills traditionally instilled in the young as "building blocks" of learning. Nor did earlier theories recognize the extent to which complex learning skills begin developing at preschool ages.

The innate learning capabilities of the young are now being joined with interactive learning skills achieved through encounters with game and other information technology. The new challenge for education is twofold: First, what has already been learned about learning must be applied to aid the general teaching and educational reform effort. Second, while systemic reform goes forward, research into the changes in learning posed by interactive technologies must be vigorously supported so tomorrow's schools will profit from improved understandings of learning in the information age.

Traditionally the federal government and a few philanthropic foundations have been the sources of support for cognitive research by scientists and scholars. These institutions must be encouraged to support research that will improve our understanding of how the children of the information age will learn.

Some very very good points

Children have always been explorers, born with the ability to interact and learn about the world. But children today are growing up in a different world. Those between the ages of 3 and 18-and especially children entering school today-are being hailed as the "Nintendo Generation." They live in a world that is increasingly interactive, communications intensive, and knowledge based. They are standard bearers in the technological revolution, having never known anything else. Because of their ease in and with the information age, society needs their active involvement and interaction.

The changes going on today create an opportunity and necessity for a transformation in the way our schools function and our children are taught. If we cannot teach our children how to play and work in this world, our children will remain at risk. Education must be based on a model that is appropriate for an information-driven society. We must prepare children for a future of unforeseeable and rapid change.

Home entertainment and video game technology is ubiquitous, creating a customer base that dwarfs that of the business market. The size of the consumer market has allowed manufacturers to offer sophisticated hardware and software at greatly reduced unit costs. The processors in even simple appliances like televisions and audio compact disk players have the capacity of business systems of just a few years ago. And in many ways-particularly with regard to the graphics and sound that are so engaging to children-home video game systems outstrip even current business systems.

The huge amounts of technology already in the hands of children offer the education community a low-cost way to bring technology into the classroom, in addition to the accepted approach of relying on more expensive systems from the business market. If accepted by educators, the convergence of superior educational software designed for business computers and the problem-solving approaches of game systems could prove a powerful force in K-12 education.

A national and international digital network called the Internet currently ties together millions of people electronically around the world. Over the next decade electronic networks will rapidly evolve to provide information, services, and interaction to virtually all Americans. They will encompass the telephone system, cable television, wireless communications, shopping, libraries, higher and continuing education, and other services now provided in person. This evolution will be fueled by public policies designed to foster competition, equity, and individual rights. It will also be fueled by massive private investment in infrastructure and content.

The Internet, which is now rooted largely in institutions of higher education, has tremendous potential to change K-12 education. Yet today, despite promising starts in some schools, that potential remains largely untapped. As the network's focus shifts from institutions to individuals, ubiquitous access will become a practical tool for education both at home and in schools.

The Internet is one prototype of the information superhighway. A reflection of many communities and individuals, it has been built upon both public and private initiatives. It provides a means for collaboration and research not bound by walls, distance, or time.

The Internet is a key element in reinventing K-12 education. Children and adults alike who have access find that the Internet's boundless information resources and communications capabilities are not only enlightening but fun.

But for the Internet to be successfully used in teaching and learning, the 16,500 school districts across America need both to have access to it and to be able to use it. Both the public and private sectors have an opportunity to expand access to the Internet, linking our nation's schools, libraries, universities, research centers, private companies, and homes. Phone lines, interactive cable television, satellite links, and fiber optic cable all should be options for connecting to the net.

For more than 200 years, from the founding of the 13 colonies in the 1600s until well after the Civil War, the nation's educational needs were largely met through the model of the one-room school. As the nation urbanized and industrialized in the latter part of the 1800s, today's factory model of K-12 education emerged. As the nation enters the next century, technology allows us to consider a new model of education, one that couples classroom learning and resources to education resources found quite literally throughout the world.

In the one-room school and in today's factory-model schools, the teacher is the heart of the education enterprise. In the new model of education, the teacher will emerge as the mentor, guide, and broker to the world of knowledge made accessible by technology.

In response to the many reports of serious inadequacies in U.S. schools, national thinking about the state of K-12 education underwent a remarkable change in the 1980s. The governors of various states emerged at the forefront of educational reform, turning the call for action into measurable changes within their states. By decade's end, the governors and President Bush had agreed to establish standards and performance goals to be in place by the year 2000-a process that has been formalized in the Goals 2000 legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton.

In contrast to earlier reform activities, today's systemic reform efforts are broad-based, deeply rooted, and cognizant of the need to have national standards implemented through local reform. They recognize the need to support all components of the educational system consistently and continuously.

Over this same period information technology has moved from an era of mainframes to local area networks and network connectivity. By coupling the wider use of technology in education to the systemic reform effort and by using the emerging curriculum standards as guides to the development of educational software, new models of K-12 education can be catalyzed.

February 5, 2008

Saskatchewan Technology

Recent findings:

After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the LA Times newspaper read: 'California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.'

One week later, 'Moose Jaw Times Herald', a local newspaper in Saskatchewan reported the following:

'After digging as deep as 30 meters in sagebrush fields near Moose Jaw, Oley Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Oley has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Saskatchewan had already gone wireless.'

February 4, 2008

My next haircut....for sure

On Demand, on Time and for a Fee, an Army of Tutors Appears

JEN cut her pie into 12 pieces and ate 9, and then Louisa cut her pie into 8 pieces and ate 6, which for some reason prompted me to open a bottle of white wine and drink two glasses.
Fifth-grade homework is killing me. I had hoped to get better at it by the time my third child turned 10. Instead, as my daughter Clementine pulled out a worksheet the other day, I started to squirm resentfully.

On Demand, on Time and for a Fee, an Army of Tutors Appears - New York Times

Microsoft makes a bid for Yahoo

Competition with Google likely to improve the internet experience
for educators and students, among millions of other web users

Top News - Microsoft makes a bid for Yahoo

February 1, 2008

Puzzles in Education

Welcome to PIE, the Puzzles in Education section of Puzzles.COM!

You belong here if you are a teacher looking to learn about the best work going on in the world today on teaching creative problem solving to students, or a concerned parent looking for the same things for your own children.

We are always on the watch for good programs, and there are a few out there that are exceptional that you should know about. Follow this link to learn more about these programs and how you could get involved with them.

Welcome to Puzzles in Education

Acts of Kindness

Want to encourage kindness on campus? See our free Teacher's Guide, lesson plans, activity ideas, and other materials.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation

My Pic

Middle Years Professional Inquiry Cycle (MY PIC) is a professional development tool designed to support Middle Years teachers, grades 4-8, and teacher-librarians as they inform and advance teaching and student learning through a process of inquiry. In this process, teachers will define a question for inquiry relevant to student learning in their own classroom environment. Teachers will then have opportunities to connect to research and best practice as they investigate their question, experiment with new strategies and models of teaching in their own classroom, gather and reflect on student evidence stemming from that investigation and experimentation and share their findings in a professional learning community.

Middle Years Professional Inquiry Cycle

February

A "hearty" collection of activities for you to use in your classroom. If you haven't prepared, don't be brokenhearted… These lessons and resources will put you in the loving spirit of February!

February Resources